SPAM emails - an apology

keithcaley



Joined: 13/06/2008
Posts: 2521

Message Posted:
02/10/2009 09:28

I just found out that emails have been sent to most people in my email address book, purportedly from me, with the subject "Hello...U.!" extolling the virtues of a company called http://www.elsso.com.

This is SPAM - please don't open any emails with this subject line.

I don't yet know if one of the machines that I have used is compromised, or if Yahoo or Facebook, or some other site has been hacked - I'm looking into it.

A quick check on Google revealed that there are a lot more people with the same problem.

Please accept my apologies if you receive one of these emails 'from me' - and just delete it.

It is nothing to do with this website, as I use different passwords on different sites, so as they say, 'Don't Panic!'

Keith.

Lilli



Joined: 21/07/2008
Posts: 13081

Message Posted:
02/10/2009 09:36

oh keith i read mine and replied to you. Happened to me last week when I opened an email to see a picture from another board member. Lo and behold everybody in my address book and people I didnt know received the same email from me. I had some apologizing to do. Thank you for the warning xx

zerochlor


Joined: 03/04/2009
Posts: 4024

Message Posted:
02/10/2009 10:02

i got the same email keith,thought you was working on a commission basis with the chinese !

TRNCVaughan


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 4578

Message Posted:
02/10/2009 10:14

I got your mail and opened it. You must stop visiting those dodgy websites before you go blind!

Kibris


Joined: 07/11/2007
Posts: 372

Message Posted:
02/10/2009 11:06

I always delete mail from you anyway so no problem there

No1Doyen


Joined: 04/07/2008
Posts: 16617

Message Posted:
02/10/2009 11:15

Hi Keith. Thanks for your email. The cheques in the post.

DutchCrusader



Joined: 19/05/2008
Posts: 11281

Message Posted:
02/10/2009 11:32

Keith, I got *your* email also (telling me you had bought an Apple Macintosh somewhere in China..!). I'm afraid your computer has a worm or virus ( http://www.google.com/search?q=Define%3Aworm&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 ). It may mean that all recipients of your email are now sending the content of your email to all email addresses on their computer. And so on and on and on.

Do you run up-to-date anti-virus software? And are the virus definitions regularly updated? And is it fully activated? Does the software have the option to manually check for problems?

By the way: this problem is only threatening PC users - Mac users are safe.

pinkchilli


Joined: 30/11/2008
Posts: 689

Message Posted:
02/10/2009 11:37

DC



If Keiths' email was NOT opened, will it still mean all recipients are affected?



Regards



PC

DutchCrusader



Joined: 19/05/2008
Posts: 11281

Message Posted:
02/10/2009 11:43

RE msg 8, pinkchilli: If *you* didn't open the email with its malware and deleted it right away you are most probably safe. Empty your trash bin at once and check that the email really is gone. INSTALL GOOD ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE!!!

DutchCrusader



Joined: 19/05/2008
Posts: 11281

Message Posted:
02/10/2009 11:50

PC users can download free or commercial anti-virus software here:

http://www.google.com/search?q=anti-virus%20software&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8



My suggestion: Norton (free one month trial), virus definitions updated via the Internet.

or

AVG Free.



Be smart - DO IT!!!

mmmmmm



Joined: 19/12/2008
Posts: 8398

Message Posted:
02/10/2009 13:00

Hi Hans!



I use Thunderbird as an email client and AVG free and *I* had the email, too.. no virus/ trojan was detected !



Hmmm....

come_on_aylin


Joined: 14/06/2008
Posts: 908

Message Posted:
02/10/2009 13:11

Avira basic is a free anti-malware/virus detector and it's much faster and better at finding problems than AVG.

RubberDuck


Joined: 16/02/2009
Posts: 72

Message Posted:
02/10/2009 14:22

Another antivirus that comes highly recommended is Panda Cloud - http://www.cloudantivirus.com/



It came top in a recent study by pc world comparing Panda Cloud Antivirus, Avira, avast!, Microsoft Security Essentials, AVG, Comodo, PC Tools, and ClamAV.



I've always been a user of Norton's but after it missed a rather nasty trojan on my pc recently I switched to Panda Cloud.